Website Marketing

How does your website fit into your overall marketing plan? For some companies, Internet marketing is separate from offline marketing. Advertising, public relations, telemarketing, direct marketing and sales promotions are all considered separate from the Internet. If that is the case at your company, it’s time to take another look at the goals of your marketing plan and put together an integrated marketing plan.

One of the most common problems for small business owners is that they do not look at their website as part of their marketing plan; they think it “is” the marketing plan. Because they have a website, they assume business will come to them. They also believe that all they need is the right search engine optimization to get high rankings with Google and the website will be a success. Unfortunately, that is not the case.

Get Real

Internet traffic continues to grow daily and millions of websites are all competing for top ranking with Google. In April 2006, the U.S. had over 315 million active home Internet users looking for websites. How is your site going to get some of that traffic? How are people going to know your site even exists?

The sad truth is that business owners can not rely on search engine optimization to bring in the traffic they need. The Internet has just gotten too big. That’s why integrated marketing is the key to bringing in more business.

Use Offline Marketing for Online Customers

The secret to increased website traffic is creating an offline marketing campaign that drives traffic to your website. For example, create an integrated marketing plan using a combination of e-mail, postcards, and telephone follow-up. According to the Direct Marketing Association’s 2005 Response Rate Report, telephone follow-up increased the response rate to direct mail; but e-mail increased the response to both direct mail and the telephone.

Create Multi-Channel Relationships

Look at what some of the bigger companies are doing with integrated marketing and you’ll have a better idea of what to do. Best Buy successfully creates multi-channel relationships with its customers. Offline mailers encourage customers to register on its website for special offers and savings. The website, in turn, guides them to nearby stores for local pickup of online purchases. Then Best Buy follows up with promotional e-mails to continue cross-selling.

Small business owners may not have the money or manpower to create big marketing campaigns like Best Buy, but they can follow the leaders and learn from their successes. Pick out some of the techniques you think would work for your business and start implementing them.

Start simple, like giving people a reason to visit your site. Did you know that visitors often come four to five times to a website before they make a purchase? Each time they come to a site, they are looking for change; something to hold their interest. If you site never changes, why would people come back?

Use an integrated marketing approach to motivate people to come to your site and encourage them to keep coming back. Here are some ideas for offline and online marketing integration:

*On the homepage, have a box set aside for information that is constantly changing and would be of interest to your target audience.

*Create a special discount for online shoppers.

*Create a short/fun online quiz on the homepage.

*Create a short, online opinion poll survey on a hot topic in your industry.

*Send out a postcard with a website address that takes them to a special landing page to enter into a contest.

*Send out a postcard to encourage people to sign-up online for your newsletter.

*Send out a series of e-mail follow-up autoresponders every time you sell a product.

*Through a postcard or e-mail, offer a free PDF download on your site, of a white paper or report that would be valuable to your target audience.

*Follow-up an online purchase with a phone call.

Nothing I’ve mentioned is beyond the reach of the small business owner. Take a look at your marketing efforts and see what you can do now to change over to an integrated marketing approach. Discover how easy it is to improve website performance without search engine optimization.

Build up links

Search other websites that are compatible to your website. Contact the websites owners to ask if they are willing to post your link and offer to post theirs on your site. Both of you will both increase web traffic and boost search engine rankings.

Write good content for other web sites and place back link to your own site. This is a great tool to build up links to your site and increase internet traffic to your site.

Contact local directory websites, trade associations, or any other web site that may link to your site. Don’t give up any opportunity to place link to your website. You will be surprised that you build up huge links and get tons of free traffic over time.

Build up networkingWhether you are doing business in person, or chatting online, use all opportunities to build up your networking. You may get a lot of contact trough press release or forums. Join your local and online community. You can get to know your competitors as well as clients.

The online community is a great place to meet people, learn about what is new, and get the news out about your web site. In return you will get a lot of free traffic.

Search engine optimization

Quality content is the key to increase web traffic. By supplying your site with quality content containing keywords, posting a keyword enhanced blog, and increasing links with other sites, you can boost your rankings and get more and more visitors arriving at your web site.

The better strategy of SEO is to cooperate with the search engines and provide the needs of your visitors on your site. This will provide you with a solid foundation that may give you business growth for years to come.

You may not need monetary investment to drive traffic to your web site. But you still need invest your time and energy. You may feel that your time is too valuable for some of these free methods, but the pay off can be huge. Over time you will see that you have built a thriving business. http://gs.megastarhome.com

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We all know the importance of search engine rankings these days. Therefore, choosing a SEO friendly domain name means that you have started on the right note in the virtual world. One of the crucial roles in search engine rankings is played by domain names related to keywords that focus on your business and website. It definitely goes a long way in attracting target audience, getting increased conversions and generating business.

The process of choosing the right domain name needs careful considerations and deliberations, when you are thinking of starting a new website. And this is especially important if search engine optimization is going to be the main tool for directing traffic to your website. A SEO friendly domain name is one of the key factors that contribute to the success of the website. Therefore, you have to keep in mind the objective of your website and accordingly choose targeted keywords that you are planning to use to get top search engine rankings for your site. Inserting the main keywords of your business into the URL is a good idea. This is because not only is your website theme kept same throughout but Google, too, looks favorably on it.

Now, let us see what the different factors are that can be adopted to make a SEO friendly domain name.

Keywords in the Domain NameKeywords play the role of a catalyst in a domain name. Though the keywords themselves do not constitute the entire process of SEO but they definitely contribute in making the entire procedure happen at a much faster rate.

Stick with the “.com”The top level domain or TLD remains the most popular extension for a domain name. A .com domain definitely allows credibility boost. It is the most widely accepted extension. Of course, we can’t neglect that there are a lot of successful websites that end with a “.net”, “.uk”, or a “.biz”, but at the same time a .com extension by far is the most recalled one. If your business happens to be a new one, do you really want your customers to forget all about you just because they recalled to type in a “.com” instead of your “.edu”, and as a result couldn’t go back to your site! However, there are certain exceptions to this rule, especially if your business is geographically constrained and targets only local customers, in that case a “.au” will work as well.

Shorter and Catchier

It is best to have a domain name that is short and catchy. It is easier for visitors to recall and remember these. And you definitely don’t want a website that loses out on traffic because the domain name is too long, tricky or complicated to remember. Short names can also be typed more easily. Ensure that your domain name is easy to remember and easy to type.

No Hyphens or NumbersUse of hyphenated or numbered domain names should be avoided. This is because it creates complications. Most often than not such domain names are forgotten easily, because it can’t be recalled where exactly the hyphen or the number has to be placed. You may end up losing your customers to other similar named websites, who do not use a hyphen or a number. And more often than not, hyphenated domain names sound like cheap substitutes of the real thing.

Type-In TrafficThis is when someone simply arrives at a particular website by just typing what they are searching for in their URL bar, and add a “.com” at the end. And a lot of people actually do that! Therefore, if you can choose a domain name that has an exact match keyword then you have better chances of receiving traffic. Also these kinds of domain names have better SEO benefits going for them.

Choosing a domain name that is SEO friendly can work wonders for your business by attracting lots of visitors to your website. With a heavy inflow of traffic, there are better chances of increases in conversion. All this definitely contributes in making your business a success.

Thank your lucky stars that over 200 million people access the Internet.  When it comes to making money online, you can’t ignore the mere presence of 200 million people, no matter what you sell on the internet.

Say what you will, but if you’ve been online for any amount of time, you already know that getting the audience you want is a lot harder than it seems.

When the dust settles, you have search engines to submit to, links to make, banner exchanges to sign up for, e-mail databases to create, lists to post to, and I could go on and on.

It is absolutely vital that you think outside the box when you are designing a web promotion strategy.  You see, the Internet provides a place for any and everyone to share, receive, and contribute information. 

But here’s the real kicker…you have to know HOW to harness this traffic and give the people what they are looking for.  Keep reading as we cut through the smoke and mirrors.  You will walk away with a solid plan for increasing your web traffic.

Let’s begin…

1) Target The Right Audience.

No doubt about it, the Internet is a market of niches; and if you have the capability of appealing to one or more of these niches, you can become very successful.

Here’s the tip…the more obscure the subject, and the smaller the market, the less users you will get for your website. 

With that being said, you goal here is to get people who are interested, and with money to spend, to come to your site and become loyal users.

It is a waste of time to market to people whose interests are different from what your website is promoting.

Consider this fact:  If you goal is to make money, you want to bring to your website the types of people who are prepared to buy what you are selling.  There is no need to reinvent the wheel here. Being everything to everybody will put you on the short end of the stick every time.

Let me ask you…who will benefit the most from visiting your site?  If you can answer this question, you have your target market.

Direct your marketing efforts only towards that group people, and you will be able to get your foot in the door and start seeing some real profit.

By now, you are probably wondering just how to find your target audience.  A good rule of thumb is to look for online communities, e-mail lists, discussion forums, and virtual communities in your niche. 

Poke around different sites to see what is most important to them.  What are their complaints?  What problem keeps popping up that no one has solved?  You’ll be surprised at just how much you can learn from this method. 

In fact, if you do this early enough in the game, and on a consistent basis, your marketing strategy will develop right before your eyes.

2) Know Your Competition.

If you really want to increase your web traffic immensely, then research your niche and spend as much time as possible studying how other website are conducting business.  You can use any search engine to find websites located within your niche.

But that’s not all.  Visit your competitor’s sites as soon as possible.  What you can learn can help improvise the quality of your own website. 

Read their content, follow the links on their website, check out and even order their products. See what their promotion techniques are, find out their search engine ranking, and more importantly – find out what group of people they appear to be targeting the most.

Pay close attention to those features that seems to gain a lot of usage.  Do they blast free offers, give out discount coupons, offer free software, offer membership to a free newsletter, and do other marketing activities worth modeling?

The point here is to look at the big picture.  What are they doing to add value to their site?  Take notice of just how well they deliver.  In fact, ask yourself if they over-deliver.

A word of caution here:  Competitors site do change, and change often.  It is to your advantage to check on these sites on a routine basis. 

Stay ahead of the game and be flexible. Despite what you may have heard, consider getting on your competitors mailing list.  This way you will know what they are offering when, and how much. 

Get to know your competitors well.  The more you know, the easier it will be for you to beat them to the punch and increase your web traffic

3) Make Your Business Easy To Find

As you might have noticed, marketing messages are everywhere, and it is easy to get lost in the crowd. 

I’m telling you, society has a short attention span.  So, do whatever it takes to persuade them to your side – and do it fast.

For starters, your domain name is your signature.  It is a great tool for catching your target audience’s attention.  What it boils down to is making a good first impression. 

Having your own domain name projects a professional image of your website.  It tells the world you mean business.  And, on top of that, it tells your niche that you have dedicated a space to serve only them. 

And, just in case you are wondering, getting a domain name is really cheap. 

The main thing here is to grab a name that stands out from the crowd – one that commands attention.  Choose a unique word or short phrase.  Something people will remember and can easily type into a web browser.  Think of words that cause good feelings to stir and begin there.

My point is, make the domain as distinctive as possible because it is what people will use to come to your website.

All in all, you can run a successful business and garner the lion’s share of online traffic if you know where to begin.  Where will you go from here?